Ducey: Arizona-Mexico relationship will remain strong under Trump presidency
Dec 21, 2016, 6:01 AM | Updated: 11:12 am
PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey pledges to maintain a strong relationship with Mexico under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, he said Tuesday.
While Valley economists predict a solid growth in 2017 for the state’s economy, they say Arizona’s cross-border trade with Mexico is up in the air if President-elect Donald Trump modifies free-trade agreements.
But Ducey said his growing relationship with Mexican officials will be the key to ensuring public safety along the border and growing economies in both Mexico and Arizona.
“My first international trip as Governor was to Mexico City. I think that I have the type of relationship that began as a partnership, which has turned into a friendship,” Ducey said.
“Paul Fannin, a previous governor of Arizona, said, ‘God’s made us neighbors, so let us be good neighbors,'” he said.
Mexico is the state’s No. 1 trading partner, and hundreds of Valley residents travel across the border for vacation, work and other personal matters each year.
Ducey said he will maintain the “incredibly important relationship” with Mexico to ensure border security for residents on both sides.
He pledged that the state’s border strike force will continue to track and take down cartel members, drug dealers and human traffickers who do “unspeakable crimes to young people often in the sex trade.”
“[Mexican officials] care about the public safety of their people as well,” Ducey said. “They understand what we need to do here to stop these drug dealers.”
“We can have the good guys trading with the good guys, and we can law enforcement focusing on the people that are breaking the law,” he said.
